Cost of desalination dominates water panel hearings

AUSTIN — Desalination, the method of removing salt and impurities from seawater or groundwater, should play a critical role in meeting the future water needs of Texas, a legislative panel was told earlier this week in Austin.

“Desalination is a huge issue for Texas and we need to do it,” Steve Lyons, meteorologist in charge at the Weather Forecast Office in San Angelo, said to members of the Joint Interim Committee to Study Water Desalination on Monday.

“Municipal water demands are expected to rise by more than 70 percent by the year 2060,” said Lyons, who is also adjunct professor of tropical and marine weather at Texas A&M University.

“There is no way our current climate will support that kind of demand,” Lyons stressed. “Your average amount of rainfall is not going to work.”

However, one key question Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa asked went largely unanswered during the afternoon-long hearing: What will be the cost of desalinated water to ratepayers?

“We need to compare the cost of desalt to the actual cost of water now,” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, told a panel of Texas Water Development Board officials testifying before the committee consisting of seven House members and five senators.

Gregorio Flores III, vice president of public affairs at the San Antonio Water System, said in an interview after he testified that in the Alamo City, which is building a desalination plant, the estimated cost of desalinating 1,000 gallons of water is $3.49.

This is a cost that would be passed on to the ratepayers, said Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, a member the joint panel of seven state representatives and five senators.

Since the average Texas family consumes 6,500 gallons a month, this would mean an increase of $21.68 a month in a typical water bill.

That would certainly not be anything out of the ordinary, said Larson, a leading water expert in the Legislature. Moreover, it would be cheaper than transporting water, particularly from far away areas.

“That costs a heck of a lot more than if they had brackish water in close proximity,” Larson said.

Hinojosa said in an interview knowing how much is the cost of desalinating brackish water is critical, particularly in the next few weeks when the joint committee holds public hearings through the state.

“The public doesn’t know or doesn’t care about how much water is in an acre foot,” he said in reference to the most common measurement of groundwater and surface water. An acre foot is 325,051 gallons, or, an acre of land covered by water one-foot deep.

“All they want to know is ‘How much will my bill be?’” Hinojosa said. “Those are the questions we need answers for.”

In all, Larson and Hinojosa said, the public discussion of desalination got off to a good start.

Beginning in Corpus Christi next week, the panel will hold a series of public hearings throughout the state, including a possible stop in West Texas.

“I am very optimistic that this will be a viable option for us to meet our future water needs,” Hinojosa said. “We have seen that it has been successful in other countries like Israel, Brazil and the Middle East … sometimes it takes a drought like the one we are going through that pushes you to take action.

Rep. Four Price, R-Amarillo, who was in Austin for another committee hearing, said he is glad the joint desalination panel is holding public hearings throughout the state.

“Our water needs are high and our demand for water will continue to increase,” said Price, joint author of an omnibus water bill the Legislature passed in last year’s session.

“We have to continue being aggressive in developing technologies that will meet those demands in the future,” Price said. “As a state, we have an obligation to make sure that we turn over every rock and explore every idea and this technology is proven. It has worked not only in other areas of our country but all over the world.”